Customer Reviews

Sony DAV-X1 Platinum DVD Dream Home Theater System

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Because I had little desire to wire my living room for surround sound (much less to convince my wife of the benefits of doing so), I researched 2.1 home theater systems to mate with my Hitachi plasma.

My first pick was the Bose Cinemate, which in a word was underwhelming. Not much kick, if any, from the subwoofer (perhaps that's why Bose clumsily calls it an "Acoustimass module" instead). And the satellites didn't provide much improvement in clarity or range over my TV speakers.

Then I got this system, and boy what a difference it made! First, I could distinctly hear and enjoy sounds not previously audible over our TV speakers, and less noticeable over the Bose. Second, the subwoofer packs quite a powerful punch despite only 40W of power. In fact, to balance the sound output between the three speakers, I had to turn down the subwoofer's level three notches. Now the system produces sound that has theater-like presence, and matches the image quality of our HDTV.

Speaking of image quality, the included DVD player outputs excellent visuals. Its upconversion of resolution to 1080i noticeably improved image quality over our one-year old (non-upconverting) Phillips player.

Set up was simple, especially using an HDMI cable (a Belkin PureAV 8' cable, which on Amazon was almost half the price at Circuit City).

I have only two niggles with this system. First, the DVD player takes a little long (about 10 seconds) initially to read a DVD. Second, because of the proprietary connections between the speakers and DVD player, if any part of the system goes, then unless Sony offers replacements a la carte, the whole system may need to be replaced. However, from several weeks of use, this appears to be a quality system, and hopefully I'll never have to look into replacement options.

One final word about surround sound. I've never been that impressed with the surround sound aspect of home theater systems. Occasionally hearing a noise from behind me never added much to my enjoyment, and in my judgment was not worth the hassle of wires and rear speakers. This system, like the Bose, purports to create simulated surround sound, but really doesn't live up well to its promise (at least not in a half open living room). Nonetheless, I didn't buy this system for surround capabilities and I don't miss it. Watching DVDs through this system still puts me in the middle of a theater-like experience, and that's what I was looking for.

UPDATE: I've had this system for over 3 years now, and it still works as well as it did on day 1. I've replaced the 42 inch HDTV I originally paired with it, but I still use it for DVDs and for outputing sounds from my PS3 (gaming and blu-ray) via my new HDTV's optical video output. Also, in 2006, I paid around $600 for this, which I thought was worth it. Now, in 2009, some vendor here is offering it for $999, which I do not think is worth it. You can get a PS3 or other blu-ray player, receiver, and stand-alone speakers to build your own "dream system" for that amount of money, or you can purchase other home-theater-in-a-box systems with a blu-ray player.

Prior to any comments regarding the performance of this system, I should note that, due to extensive research on DVD players,there were no surprises here. I've been reading product reviews on this subject for over a year and selected this unit based on my individual needs. The Sony DAV-X1 was to be used in conjunction with my Sony SXRD rear projection TV in a relatively small family room. The fact that a HDMI cable could be used here was a factor. The two speakers, plus woofer, work out nicely in a limited space area. And, there is really no sacrifice in sound quality that is meaningful. If you happen to literally have a home theatre in a large room and have no problems with setting up and enjoying four or more speakers, this is not the unit for you. To paraphrase an old saying, "Anything over an earful is wasted." How often can most of us crank up the sound without waking the kids, the neighbors, or inflicting damage to our eardrums. I have always equated the sense of sound with the sense of smell. The distinctiveness of either is readily apparent for a short time, after which there is only good or bad. This unit produces good sound, quite adequate for anything I would ever need to hear either on DVD, TV, CD, or FM radio. Should I ever win the lottery, I will be more than willing to go high end however.... I recommend this system to people who appreciate good sound and don't feel the need to entertain the neighborhood.

What i like:
-Good Sound quality
-Very easy to set up. Only one cable for speakers/sub.
-very reliable so far. i haven't had any problems with this unit since i bought it. i bought this because my Bose 321 no longer works properly.
-Remote control can be programed to work with other audio/video units.
-i bought a display model at Circuit City for more than half its orignal price, which makes this a very good buy.
-the unit runs very quiet. you won't notice it when it's on.

What i don't like:
-Subwoofer is weak if not placed right and it's not much to look at.
-no clock. i don't know why bose321 and this unit decided to leave this feature out.
-Slow boot-up. It took this unit longer to power up and play a DVD movie compared to a stand-alone DVD player.

i didn't gave this a five because a five would mean the unit is perfect.

For 3-2-1 type of theater system this is fabulous. We have an average size livingroom & this system rocks the room while watching a movie. Easy to set up, no wiring, just plug-in and enjoy. We were considering buying a bose 3-2-1 GS Series II theater system. We are so glad we didn't! When the sales guy was showing how the Bose system played, he tried to get the demo dvd out of the dvd player, but could not until he shut the unit down and powered it on again. Plus, the Sony dvd player will play store bought dvds and computer recorded dvds. Which Bose system can not read all dvds. This system is a pleasure to have for all that wish to have the great theater sound in their livingroom without having to spend hours wiring the speakers throughout the room. This is the BEST Price we found for this Sony Theater System!!!! Do not hesitate to buy, we highly recommend Sony DAV-X1 Platinum DVD Dream Home Theater System!!!!

I was looking for a home theatre system with decent sound quality that would not be difficult to assemble or use, and would blend into my living room without taking up a lot of space or cords everywhere.

It is a cool system, and I am satisfied with it. Plugging the cords to the speakers is a snap. You MAY need to talk to a knowledgeable person on which connectors to use to the television as there are multiple alternatives. The remote has more complicated functions hidden from view under a slide cover except for "advanced" users. The simulated surround sound is amazing, at least in my living room which has 24' high ceilings. Some treble voices and high-pitched noises can sound a bit "disembodied", but generally quality and clarity is decent.

For the professional DJ or person with a major home theatre setup, this is not for you. Sounds from earthquake scenes or War of the Worlds will not knock the books off the shelves, it just doesn't pump out enough watts to do that. However, I never crank up the volume that loud anyway.

Now the negatives:
(1) Most irritating there is no headphone jack. I mean for Pete's Sake, this is a stereo system. I have an aged parent who would like to watch movies with us but can not hear, we had to figure out how to connect extra cables to send DVD audio to the tv and use the tv headphone jack for her.

(2) There are proprietary connector plugs at the end of the cords/cables to connect the receiver with the speakers. These are very large...sufficiently large that they would not go through the hole in the back of my entertainment center. I had to use a file to make the hole larger for the plugs to fit through.

(3) There is no way to manually adjust treble and bass like an equalizer, you can only select from general types of music "Rock", "Classical", etc. For my purposes however, I find this works okay.

(4) Initial "reading" of a newly-loaded CD or DVD takes an inordinate amount of time before it is ready for Play.

(5) The User's Guide is not so helpful. I suppose the idea is that it is "intuitive" to operate, but it was not immediately clear that some of the controls are displayed on the television set, not on the unit itself (i.e., you have to turn the television on in a certain sequence and the unit's controls display on the tv screen).

I just bought the Sony system and have been very happy with it. Having just bought a 40" Sony Bravia and not being able to run wires throughout the family room, I started shopping for 2.1 systems. Most of the lower end systems (LG, Samsung) appeared very cheaply built and unimpressive. I compared both the Bose 3.2.1 and the Sony side by side, and couldn't tell much of a difference. So I bought the Sony for half the price. The DVD player seems to work fine so far. The sound quality is very good--not excellent--but if you want better spend more money for a 7.1 system. The best things about this system for me are the compact design (the DVD player and speakers fit on the same shelf as my cable box), simple one wire hoook-up for the speakers, and confidence in the Sony brand name. Yeah, it is missing some things like base and treble control, headphone jack, and goofy subwoofer setting, but for the price and convenience I can overlook these minor flaws.

My wife and I decided it was time to upgrade to a 50 inch plasma and get a new theater sound system. Prior to the Sony system we had a 6 speaker Pioneer system purchased for $450 back in 2002. We were able to get the Sony system at Best Buy for $425. I wanted a smaller system with good sound because setting up a larger 6 speaker system and hiding wires was a real hassle. The Sony is very easy to setup unlike many larger systems. The HDMI DVD output to the plasma displays an excellent quality HD picture, and the sound is fantastic. It really brings out the intended sound for a DVD and provides a theater experience. We thought about getting a Bose 3 speaker system, but the price was $1000 and I don't think the sound really could be much better.

I first purchased and returned the Denon S-301. Defective HDMI connection and the on screen menu broke the second day of use. Purchased the Sony DAV-X1 and could not be happier. Its connected to a 50" Panasonic Plasma TV and the DVD video is exceptional. IMO it is very near HD quality. I have never been real big on entertaining the neighbors with a high wattage system, therefore this one is perfect. One speaker cable runs from the receiver that branches to the Sub and two speakers. Perfect! Big sound in a little package!!! Not to mention you can buy two Sony's and still have $200 bucks in you pocket as opposed to purchasing one Denon S-301.

I bought this system due to the fact that our surround sound system prior was dying off. During the installation I was highly please with the simplicity of only having to run one cable for all the speakers. I was also pleased with the amount of support for auxilary inputs and ouputs the system has. The big factor being HDMI. I am running this system to my Sony Bravia LCD and The movies come out absolutely beautiful. Clear, fast and full of color. The upconversion of the DVD player does this job beautifuly. We live in an apartment so its not like I have a lot of room to work with or the right to start running surround sound speaker wires throught the walls so being 2.1 speaker system was another added plus. The surround that the system digitally produces is great. I play A lot of games and hearing things come from behind me when there isnt any speaker there is awesome. All in all if you need a small system, with great big sound and crystal clear beautiful pictures this would be my choice.

Unfortunately I can't recommend this Sony product. 3 speaker (2 satellites & 1 subwoofer) systems are designed to take up less space than the typical 5.1 home theater systems while still delivering a respectable surround sound experience. While the Sony DAV-X1 is compact in size, it does a surprisingly poor surround-sound imitation on all audio sources with the exception of DVD. Audio output from all other sources sounds flat and is sorely missing the rich, full texture that you expect from a quality audio system. Spend a few extra bucks and purchase a Bose 3.2.1 system, the Bose delivers much of the home theater performance of a conventional five-speaker system.